


The face that launch'd a thousand ships

by PB and Jam (pb_and_jam)



Category: American Revolution RPF
Genre: Break Up, Classical References, Double Drabble, F/F, F/M, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Sexism, Polyamory Negotiations, Unreliable Narrator, gone bad and resulting in, including hints of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 10:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17579447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pb_and_jam/pseuds/PB%20and%20Jam
Summary: "I expect in a few days to go to Philadelphia for a day or two. I shall there see my friend [Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens] and make him participate in my good fortune by giving him a picture of my mistress." - Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Schuyler, 27 October 1780Exactly 200 words of Laurens being passive-aggressive about the wedding





	The face that launch'd a thousand ships

Her only striking feature is her black eyes, lively and good-natured but wanting something in intensity, in passion. She is pleasing and not without a becoming unadorned innocence about her, but nothing in the portrait explains how Miss Schuyler has snared Hamilton so. She must have the sweetness of a Venus to inspire marriage in such a man. Is his friend now a Paris, awarding the Golden Apple to the wrong contender, condemning his countrymen to a bitter fate?

“How the topless towers of Ilium burn,” Laurens says simply, giving him the miniature back.

“You dislike her,” Hamilton answers, and is not contradicted. “There’s no need for that. She’s a good girl I can give my heart to, but I do not give it whole. She’s not your better.”

“Yet she’s better in virtue of being a she. I believe it was you who said Cupid and Hymen now work together. But haven’t you heard? Cupid rules us all, but Hymen in his wisdom sanctifies only proper matches. I must yield and bear it like a man.”

“You forget I’m here with _you_.”

“And it’s tearing you apart, is it not?”

And that is all there’s left to be said.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> So, the likelihood of this happening as I wrote it is thin as paper, but hey, that's what fic is for. While there's a tiny possibility that Hamilton did go visit Laurens in Philadelphia and they did have a chat that didn't go too well, I don't find this drabble basically consistent with the letters we have left. But it was a plot bunny I had to chase! Don't take it too seriously as historical fiction, though.
> 
> On a similar vein, mind the POV: Laurens' opinions about Betsey and about polyamory are far from being even similar to my own and, I firmly believe, Hamilton's. I even tagged Unreliable Narrator, so please don't think the comments are a safe space for hating on women for "getting in the way" because I'm not down for that. Especially because these are real people we're talking about. Play nice, kids.
> 
> Thank you again for dropping by!


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